Chancellor John Healey throws his weight behind third runway for Heathrow despite Andy Burnham side-stepping the issue

The Chancellor has renewed his support for a third runway at Heathrow Airport, signalling a possible future battle with Andy Burnham who is lukewarm over the scheme.

John Healey said last night that he believed expanding the airport would boost economic growth.

Speaking from Thailand where he is representing the UK at International Monetary Fund meetings in Bangkok, he said airport expansion had been associated with 'jobs and growth' in recent decades.

The Chancellor also confirmed to reporters that the Department for Transport's formal consultation was now closed, saying: 'We're reviewing those, and then further decisions and announcements will follow.'

While Mr Healey has been a consistent supporter of expanding Heathrow, the Prime Minister has sidestepped the issue, saying recently it 'was a matter for London and Londoners'.

'I think we ought to hear the voice of people there first. It's not right for me to just jump straight in on the back of the consultation,' he told the BBC last month.

He previously criticised the plans when he was Manchester Mayor.

Mr Healey's latest comments come after Heathrow's chief executive Thomas Woldbye said this week that not building a third runway at the UK's busiest airport would be a 'huge missed opportunity'.

He said it would be 'good to know' the government's position on the project.

And referring to the PM's previous comments, he said a third runway was 'not just for Londoners' and said he hoped he would 'come along' with the project.

'Benefits will be felt all over the country because our supply chain reaches all the way from the north all the way to the south of the UK,' said Mr Woldbye.

And he warned the airport's consortium of owners 'cannot wait forever' for explicit backing from Mr Burnham, suggesting it must come before the end of the year or the project could be in jeopardy.

The expected 2035 project completion deadline has already been postponed to 2039 after chiefs at the London airport told ministers it was always 'too ambitious'.

Heathrow serves more than 80 million travellers a year with its four passenger terminals and two runways.

The planned expansion would increase Heathrow's capacity, currently capped at 480,000 a year, to up to 756,000 flights and 150 million passengers a year.

Former PM Sir Keir Starmer had earmarked the £49billion project as 'a cornerstone of delivering economic growth' while his Chancellor Rachel Reeves said it would 'unlock further growth, boost investment, increase exports, and make the UK more open and more connected'.

Plans to build a third runway at Heathrow have been mooted for the last 80 years, first surfacing as far back as 1946 in the post-war period.

But they have been continually thwarted by indecisive politicians and stiff opposition to the project from campaigners and environmentalists.

Senior Labour figures including London Mayor Sadiq Khan – who described it as an outdated risk 'we simply cannot afford to take' – and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband – who raised fears about global warming – are among hardline critics of the expansion.

Many have argued that not only would it have severe impacts on the environment but also that it could be for very little real economic benefit once the huge costs of any such project were taken into consideration.